Ray Nagin on Wednesday, August 31 ordered 1,500 of his police to stop their rescue efforts

By Alex Gould

Ray Nagin on Wednesday, August 31 ordered 1,500 of his police to stop their rescue efforts and control "looting". Shotguns drawn and backed up by National Guard troops, the capitalist state has turned against the desperate survivors of Hurricane Katrina to protect its number one concern: the private property of business owners.

Politicians from Bush to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin offered no transportation or housing when they ordered the population of New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, and the Delta to evacuate. The hundreds of thousands of stranded, homeless survivors struggle for life's barest necessities in the toxic floodwaters of New Orleans and the near-total destruction of the Mississippi gulf coast. The dead are only beginning to be counted, and are being left on the roads and in the rubble to rot for the time being. Lacking electricity, food, clean water, medical care, and communication with the outside world, hours are the difference between life and death for the majority black working class population of New Orleans, especially the elderly, the ill, and young children.

But former cable TV executive Ray Nagin on Wednesday, August 31 ordered 1,500 of his police to stop their rescue efforts and control "looting". Shotguns drawn and backed up by National Guard troops, the capitalist state has turned against the desperate survivors of Hurricane Katrina to protect its number one concern: the private property of business owners. Oilman Bush has declared "zero tolerance" for "looters". While he also mentioned gas price gouging, the executives at Exxon Mobil needen't fear national guardsmen at their doors with shoot-to-kill orders.

Democratic Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco called for a "day of prayer" on Wednesday for the survivors, and declared she was "furious" with "looters" and would "do what it takes to bring law and order to the area". Apparently she expects god to help the victims of Katrina, but won't allow them to help themselves.

Behind the mouthings of abstract sympathy and concern from the political elites, a rapidly militarizing approach to the disaster is taking shape in Louisiana and Mississippi. The enemy is not the crisis brought on by the natural forces, but the workers and oppressed people of the disaster zone themselves. The possibility of a deadly confrontation is imminent between the National Guard and the survivors who are growing frustrated as they are penned in to the stinking, sweltering Superdome, where the authorities say some may be trapped for weeks before an evacuation to Houston.

Well-fed news anchors have joined in to castigate the barefoot taking shoes, the soaked and dirty people taking clean clothes, the thirsty taking water and drinks and the hungry taking food from the abandoned and damaged stores. And as store owners file their insurance claims, national troops and local and state police are menacing the people with deadly force for the crimes of survival.

The oil, shipping, and tourism industries have taken decades of billion-dollar profits from the labor of the people on the Gulf coast and from their natural resources. Yet their takings are safe in the bank while New Orleans residents are being shot at for taking ramen noodle packs. The capitalist government will spend $4 billion per month on the conquest of Iraq but it can not mobilize the people and resources necessary to save the survivors of Katrina. Instead, it is turning on them with a vengeance because the ruling imperative of protecting private property must come before all else under capitalism.

In 1918, the revolutionary communist Rosa Luxemburg wrote, "The World War confronts society with the choice: either continuation of capitalism, new wars, and imminent decline into chaos and anarchy, or abolition of capitalist exploitation. With the conclusion of world war, the class rule of the bourgeoisie has forfeited its right to existence. It is no longer capable of leading society out of the terrible economic collapse which the imperialist orgy has left in its wake. ... In this hour, socialism is the only salvation for humanity. ... Socialism or barbarism!" As New Orleans and the Gulf Coast descend into further chaos and misery, and the government turns against the people it claims to be protecting, Rosa's exhortation could not be more appropriate.

We should not attack the looters, they are only doing what is needed for survival. After all Crack is water soluble and all these poor folks are going through one hell of a withdrawl, no crack for oalmost three days now. My God, the humanity. We need to airlift some crack immediatly, we should set up Crack donation centers all around the greater NY area. Lets get them poor folks some relief. Don't need food if you got crack.

tisk, tisk

Sep 04, 2005 03:50AM EDT

anti-imperialist

"We should not attack the looters, they are only doing what is needed for survival. After all Crack is water soluble and all these poor folks are going through one hell of a withdrawl, no crack for oalmost three days now. My God, the humanity. We need to airlift some crack immediatly, we should set up Crack donation centers all around the greater NY area. Lets get them poor folks some relief. Don't need food if you got crack."

To read this headline, you'd think that was the truth - the cops were sent to attack and kill survivors. Can this be true? Of course not, it's ridiculous on its face, and its further politicizing what's happening in N.O.

In reality, there are many survivors who are doing what they can to survive. There are also looters, as documented on video and in print. People stealing things not related to survival (TV sets, electronics, etc.) The looters are probably a tiny minority of the overall stranded population.

But what grabs the headlines, here on Indymedia? Cops were indeed sent in to stop looters, but the author changes 'looters' to 'survivors.' Now we're supposed to believe that cops were sent in to kill survivors.

The presumed intelligence level of Indymedia readership must be at an all-time low with this article, because you'd have to be stupid to believe it.

&quot;Heh&quot; Doesn't follow the Facts

Sep 04, 2005 12:58PM EDT

Aeand

Actually, just on Friday, the "troops" shot a man, Black, who was trying to get their attention in order to get help to stop a rape in progress. I gues he was guilty of waving his arms to wildly while being Black in amerikkka. The radical source of this information? The Daily News. "heh" can smirk from his honky ass ivory tower, but a shoot to kill order against people stealing food, water, & yes anything they can get their hands on, to sell at a later point to get their lives back together? If Buffy and Biff had to go through half of that pain for one day their pampered asses would probably turn to cannibalism. They already are bloodsuckers.

i considered that the article is very subjective. it tries to present the authorities as the enemy due to the repression. and then it couts a revolutionary communist from . When we know the soviet union used to be one of the most repressive political system of the XX century. besides tha, the cout presents anarchism as chaos and barbarism. which i don´t find pretty appropiate, because even though this web page is indepent and free. it should respect all others anti-capitalistic movements.

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